Monday, November 05, 2012

When the post-mortems come in (Part III). . .

With less than a week to go before Election Day, campaigns and other organizations are emptying their coffers to fund a barrage of last-minute political ads. One such blitz, which featured a full-page spread in last Sunday’s New York Times, is led by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and urges Americans to “vote for biblical values.” Graham’s face appears in the ad with the following text:

“On Nov. 6, the day before my 94th birthday, our nation will hold one of the most critical elections in my lifetime. We are at a crossroads and there are profound moral issues at stake. I strongly urge you to vote for candidates who support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman, protect the sanctity of life and defend our religious freedoms. The Bible speaks clearly on these crucial issues. Please join me in praying for America, that we will turn our hearts back toward God.”

The ad, which first appeared about a week after Graham and his son Franklin met with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in North Carolina, has also run in the Wisconsin State Journal, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and more than a dozen newspapers altogether, according to the Huffington Post.

And, as of yesterday, also in the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune. It's worth remembering that a lot of evangelicals sat things out in 2008. There is reason to believe that they will be back tomorrow.

Cuts both ways indeed. I'd wager that Billy Graham excites the left more than he enervates the right. Both camps, if they are alive above the brain stem, remember Mr. Graham agreeing with President Nixon, and adding his own obnoxious comments, with regard to Jews in this country and their conspiracy against the president. Those people whom view Mr. Graham as a benevolent interlocutor with the Supreme Being and either dismiss or do not know of his repugnant history of anti-Semitism are far outnumbered by people with clear memories and disgust for his scraping contemptuously at the heals of power. So, yes, indeed it cuts both ways, but one edge of this political sabre is made of very cheap, dull, and pitiful tin.

Brian, you could at least argue that "those on the left, and those who listen to most of the media, are the bigger voting block."

And anon; not quite sure how many people remember that, even on the left. If you expand the critique of Graham to include lending his name to all kinds of rogues on both sides--Graham notoriously shared a stage with Bill Clinton even after the Lewinsky debacle--I'm pretty close to with you.

Those people whom view Mr. Graham as a benevolent interlocutor with the Supreme Being and either dismiss or do not know of his repugnant history of anti-Semitism are far outnumbered by people with clear memories and disgust for his scraping contemptuously at the heals of power.

Actually, I'd be very surprised if that many people knew the history of which you speak. In fact, inasmuch as every president since Nixon has curried favor with Graham in one form or another, I find it somewhat implausible. We're 40 years past those days now.

By the way, I'm curious what you mean when you say that Graham "enervates the right."